for the study. It provided a brief overview of the study’s data-collection procedures, population, and sample. It summarized and presented the data collected by the researcher on the role that low-income parents played as contributors to their high school students’ high academic achievement. The data were analyzed and coded into several key themes aligned to the research question. The data themes were aggregated and presented by frequency level. Finally, a brief summary of the findings of the study was included.
Purpose Statement
The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand and describe the strategies that low-income parents use to support their high school students’ high academic achievement as determined by grade point average.
Research Question
The following research question guided this research study:
1. What strategies do low-income parents use to support their high school students’ high academic achievement?
Research Methods and Data Collection Procedures
A qualitative case-study research design was utilized to focus on developing a greater understanding of the experiences of low-income parents who have academically successful children. This design allowed the researcher to build a complete picture, analyze statements, report detailed perspectives of the different participants, and interact with participants in a natural setting, leading to a better understanding of their
experiences (Creswell, 2007). For this case study, the researcher interviewed a set of five low-income parents who have high-achieving high school students. A participant
interview protocol was used as the data-collection instrument. Artifacts from participants were also utilized for triangulation purposes. The researcher consulted an instrument- development specialist and developed the semi-structured interview protocol consisting of nine open-ended questions that were aligned to address the study’s research question.
The researcher gained permission from the Parent Institute for Quality Education (PIQE) administration (Appendix B) to solicit participants at the Sacramento location for their sessions taking place beginning in April, 2019. The researcher attended the initial PIQE session, introduced information about the study and invited parents to participate in it. Parents who volunteered to participate were given a demographic questionnaire and consent packet. Spanish-speaking participants were provided all materials in Spanish. Three of the potential participants from PIQE were unable to participate as planned. The researcher reached out to the other participants for recommendations of other parents who may be interested in participating in the study. Names and contact information were provided to the researcher. The researcher contacted those parents and followed the identical purposeful and criterion sampling process to garner participants. Interviews were scheduled and subsequently held at a mutually agreed-upon location in Sacramento that wasconvenient for both the researcher and the participants. The interviews followed the protocol and were recorded using a digital recording device and cell phone. A Spanish-speaking translator was used during the interviews with Spanish-speaking parents. Interviews were initially transcribed using an online transcription service and checked by the researcher. Participants were provided a copy of their interview transcript
to verify accuracy. Permission to photograph the artifacts participants brought to the interview was given at the time of the interview. Artifacts from participants were photographed by the researcher using a cell phone. Photographed artifacts were compared with the interview data for further triangulation. “Triangulation of data sources … means comparing and cross-checking the consistency of information derived at different times from interviews…and documents” (Patton, 2015, p. 662). The artifacts participants provided such as awards, report cards, letters of recognition, college
acceptance letters, athletic letters and pins, meeting agendas and notes, and photographs were cross-referenced with the interview responses to determine consistency regarding the strategies low-income parents used to support their high school student’s high academic achievement (Appendix L). The various artifacts provided by parents were used to support theme development. These artifacts were used as examples of how parents validated their engagement in supporting the high academic achievement of their children.
In this case study, the collection and analysis of the data from the participant interviews was a vital component of determining themes derived from the shared
experiences of the participants. Interview data collected was shared with an experienced consultant to assist in coding participant responses. Intercoder reliability or cross-
checking, as recommended by Creswell (2014), indicated that “two or more coders agree on codes used for the same passages of text” (Creswell, 2014, p. 203). The researcher and consultant informally established at least 80% agreement across their coding analysis. All interview transcripts and artifacts were reviewed a final time by the researcher to ensure that the themes derived were compatible with the coded data.
Population
According to McMillian and Schumacher (2010), a population is a group or cases that “conform to specific criteria and to which we intend to generalize the results of the research” (p. 129). The population for this study was all low-income parents of
academically high-achieving students in Northern California who attended public schools. “The target population is often different from the list of elements from which the sample is actually selected.” (McMillan & Schumacher, 2010, p. 129). The target population for this study narrowed the population to low-income parents of students in Sacramento County, California to facilitate the accessibility of participants and for the convenience of the researcher. This county was selected due to its 60.9% of students enrolled in public schools receiving free and reduced-price meals (CDE).
Sample
This study utilized a purposeful sampling design for identifying the study’s sample of low-income parents of academically successful high school students. Patton (2002) stated that qualitative inquiry focuses on relatively small samples intentionally selected to allow for the discovery and understanding of a particular phenomenon. Hence, the researcher identified five low-income parents willing to share their
experiences solicited from PIQE participants. These low-income parents’ students were enrolled in comprehensive public high schools located in Sacramento County, California.
The researcher first gained approval from PIQE (Appendix B) to solicit their participants and obtain the group of five interviewees to conduct this research. Criterion sampling was utilized to further refine the study’s sample. Patton (2002) stipulated that the criterion sampling approach involves selecting cases based on specific criteria.
Therefore, PIQE personnel were provided with selection criteria identifying the
participants necessary for the study. For this study, participants were selected from the larger group if they met the following criteria:
1. Parent of students currently enrolled in a comprehensive public high school in Sacramento County.
2. Parent of students who have maintained a GPA of 3.0 or better throughout their 9th-, 10th-, and 11th-grade years.
3. Parent of students eligible to receive free or reduced-price meals. 4. At least one biological parent living with student.
The researcher additionally confirmed participants met the study’s criteria by having the parents complete a demographic questionnaire at the time they volunteered for the study. Participants for the study were only scheduled for interviews if they met all the study’s criteria.
Demographic Data
There were a total of five low-income parent participants for this case study. The five participants agreed to a face-to-face interview with the researcher. All the parent participants had students attending a comprehensive high school within Sacramento, California and were representative of the ethnic makeup of the area. Four of the
participants were mothers and one was a father. Two of the mothers were single parents. The other three participants were married with both parents living in the home. The participants’ education levels ranged from a sixth-grade level through a bachelor’s degree. One parent participant had a bachelor’s degree, three had a high-school diploma and one had a sixth-grade education level. Only one of the parent participants was a
native English speaker. Table 2.0 illustrates the breakdown of parent participants’ gender, ethnicity, education level, and native language spoken.
Table 2
Participant Demographic Information
Participant # Gender Ethnicity Education level
First Language 1 Female Asian Bachelor’s Degree Cantonese 2 Male African American HS Diploma English
3 Female Hispanic 6th grade Spanish
4 Female Asian Some College Laos
5 Female Hispanic HS Diploma Spanish
Through the examination of these five cases, the researcher sought to understand how low-income parents of academically high-achieving high school students describe their experiences of assisting their children throughout their education and to present common themes among the cases through cross-case analysis.
Presentation and Analysis of Data
Presented in the first part of this section are broad generalizations about the findings that emerged through one-on-one interviews, artifacts, and researcher notes. Data from the five one-on-one interviews with low-income parents of high-achieving high school students resulted in four key themes that begin to answer the research question:
What strategies do low-income parents use to support their high school students’ high academic achievement? Nine protocol questions were asked during the
approximately one-hour sessions in an effort to answer this question. As a result of analyzing the data, one overarching theme and three additional common themes surfaced regarding strategies used by low-income parents, specifically the five participants who participated in this study. The four common themes were:
• communication on personal and academic matters; • building strong personal character and life skills; • maintaining strong family relationships; and
• encouraging and providing positive experiences outside of school. Figure 1 depicts one overarching theme of communication and its relationship with the other three common themes. Parent-to-child communication was intrinsic in realizing the additional three themes derived from the data analysis.
Figure 1. The relationship of one overarching parental engagement theme and three additional common themes.
Table 3.0 reports the number of times each parent participant made a comment attributed to each theme, with the percentages indicating the portion of the total parent responses. The percentages report both the theme responses per participant and overall totals per theme.
Communication Maintaining strong family relationships Facilitating positive experiences outside of school Strong personal character and life skills
Table 3
Number and Percent of Parent Comments Related to the Interview Themes
Themes
Parent 1 Parent 2 Parent 3 Parent 4 Parent5
TOTAL
N
%
N
%
N
%
N
%
N
%
N
%
1. Communication 40 37.4 24 46.2 35 54.7 20 32.8 28 68.3 147 45.2 2. Strong personal
character and life skills 25 23.4 13 25.0 12 18.8 25 41.0 5 12.2 80 24.6 3. Maintaining strong family relationships 24 22.4 11 21.2 14 21.9 13 21.3 5 12.2 67 20.6 4. Facilitating positive experiences outside of school 18 16.8 4 7.7 3 4.7 3 4.9 3 7.3 31 9.5 Total Comments 107 100 52 100.1 64 100.1 61 100 41 100 325 *99.9 *Percentages will not always equal 100; they were rounded off to the nearest tenth
Figure 2 highlights a key finding derived from the data. It shows the percentage attributed to each of the coded parental engagement themes derived from the five low- income parents’ interview responses. Theme one was the most frequently mentioned engagement strategy parent participants of this case study reported as having an impact on student academic achievement. It is important to note that this strategy was a key means in facilitating other strategies cited by parents during the interviews.
Figure 2. Percentage of total number of parent participant responses attributed to each coded theme.
The discussion that follows highlights the aggregated data referencing each theme and the actions presented by the participants via their comments.
Theme One: Communication
The overarching theme of focused communication on personal and academic matters indicated that parents did not lose sight of the importance of encouragement, their physical and emotional presence, and connecting the importance of education in their children’s personal or academic lives. Theme one comprised nearly one-half of all parent comments from the five interviews. Note that for three of the five parents (2, 3, and 5), close to one-half of their total comments were related to communication. For parents one and four, the number of their comments related to theme one represented approximately one-third of their total. This finding is supported by the research of Sheridan et al. (2011)
45.2, 45%
24.6, 25% 20.6, 21%
9.5, 9%
Coded Parental Engagement Themes
Theme 1 - Communication Theme 2 - Strong Personal Character and Lifeskills Theme 3 - Maintaining Strong Family Relationships
Theme 4 - Facilitating Positive Experiences Outside of School
that said relational components of encouragement and warmth, shared between a parent and child as an engagement strategy, support high achievement.
This theme illustrated the value parents placed on their verbal communication with their student about working hard and developing perseverance as a means of supporting the academic achievement of their student. This theme encompassed the idealized actions of being a personal role model, communicating the value of education; connecting education and a better life, providing direct academic support, providing student need-based academic intervention, and continuously engaging with their students. All of the participants in this study brought up experiencing personal “struggles.”
However, not all of them shared details of their hardships except to state that they used their own experiences to teach their children through both verbal and modeled
communication about what hard work and determination can accomplish. Three participants demonstrated great courage in their willingness to elaborate some of the details of their struggles, illustrating their determination for a better life for their families.
According to Parent Participant 1, it was important to take an active role in her student’s life. She described talking about her own parents’ struggles as a result of no education and discussed her own self as a role model with her student:
I always talked to her about my parents, for the sake of her education. My mom and dad never had an education. When my dad was like 10 years old, he lived in China. During the war, he escaped China to Vietnam to escape communism. And he never had an education. So, he worked when he was pretty young. So, I told her that, you know what honey, you need to work hard. You know, you live in America, you are very blessed, you have a free education. So, you need to work
hard and get a very good education and be successful, you know? (Parent Participant 1).
She briefly described her own struggles:
When I came to the States, I was 12 years old. It was really hard for me. I was in like sixth grade. I don't speak a word of English. So, I told her all the stories, I don't speak a word of English, not even like one, two, three or ABC in English. So, I told her, mom works really hard, you know, and I graduated high school in ’89. I went to San Jose State for four years. But the thing is because my parents own a business, I was sort of obligated to help them run the business because my mom was sick, so I stopped college. (Parent Participant 1)
She also expressed that she later returned to college and completed her bachelor’s degree.
She used herself as a role model depicting her own growth in self-confidence and perseverance in her own learning. She additionally conveyed that as a parent she knows and understands her children. “When you volunteer at school, you know what’s going on, like academically and socially” (Parent Participant 1). She stated that being there helped her know more about her child’s performance in the classroom. She was able to observe instances of her not doing well or being quiet and shy. She would offer advice: “You should talk to the teacher, maybe the teacher could help open you up” (Parent Participant 1).
Parent Participant 3 shared some of the details of her struggles and how she used those experiences to support her children in conveying the importance of an education and building perseverance. She expressed:
I always tell her she's got to study and put in all of her effort. Because I didn't have the opportunity to go to school any further than the sixth grade because my parents died. I always wanted to continue going to school. And it was my way of saying, look, I'm here. This is, you know, me now and I want you to go to school and learn and to be a leader and to go far places. (Parent Participant 3)
She stressed that her struggles prevented her from getting an education despite her strong desire, and as a result, she is where she is today. She summed it up by saying:
I tell her that education is the most important thing. I think it's important because I didn't have the opportunity to study and I would have liked to. That used to be my dream. But I know for them it's important. Because it's an inheritance that I'm gonna leave for them. (Parent Participant 3)
Her comment illustrates her belief that education is the driving force to success in life. She views education as an essential component to having a better life and future. She described that her children listen to her and have witnessed the sacrifices she has endured for them and for her family.
Parent Participant 5 opened up about her struggles and shared about a home visit through the Parent Teacher Home Visit Project (PTHV). This national nonprofit
organization trains public-school teachers and staff in a research-based model of
voluntary home visits for connecting more authentically with families of their students. She spoke about how that visit changed her life:
I was a survivor of a domestic violence situation. And when I, uh, received that visit, not only did they talk to me about my daughter's education and her goals, but they felt the atmosphere that was in my home. They noted my, body
language. And so, she asked me if everything was okay at my house. She asked me if I had any aspirations for me, for myself. And I felt so, um, identified with that woman. Her face reflected peace, it reflected a loving attitude that I didn't have and I talked to her about everything that was happening. She talked to me about the different services that were available for a woman in my situation. And ever since then, I've never not been part of a committee or something happening in my community. Yeah, and I even went to college here. (Parent Participant 5) Parent Participant 5 became a strong advocate for struggling parents as a result of this experience that turned her life around. She began to focus on what she could do for her children to build a better outcome for them. She became active in the English Learner Acquisition Committee (ELAC), District English Learner Acquisition Committee (DELAC), and Parent Teacher Association (PTA) to increase the awareness of the importance of education and influence other parents. Her efforts as a volunteer
demonstrated the importance of a good education for her children. She modeled building her own self-confidence and learning. She didn’t let the language barrier prevent her from her efforts to support and advocate for her children. Her children have had the benefit of witnessing her grow and become a self-confident champion for lifelong learning.
Through their hardships and struggles, each participant displayed their
determination and hard work. They modeled perseverance and sacrifice for their families. They worked to overcome their challenges in order to keep moving forward. They
demonstrated determination in the face of adversity and served as life lessons for their children to persevere as well for when they encounter difficulties and hardships.
Communication. Communication was at the forefront of all parent responses to the first protocol question and probes: